Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods,: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts

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377
.C33

Fearsome Creatures of the

Lumb

umoerw^ooas

d

With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts

By William T. Cox

• • '

Illustrated by Coert DuBois

Washington, D. C.

Press of Judd & Detweiler, Inc.

1910

^

1

CoPYRKiHT, 1910

By WII.I.IAM T. COX

^ffe&ionaiely dedicated to the Con-'
catenated Order of Hoo-Hoo and all
who know the fellowship of the woods

NO. 19949

INTRODUCTION

Every lumber region has its lore. Thrilling tales of ad-
venture are told in camp wherever the logger has entered the
wilderness. The lumber jack is an imaginative being, and a
story loses none of its interest as it is carried and repeated
from one camp to another. Stories which I know to have
originated on the Penobscot and the Kennebec are told, some-
what strengthened and improved, in the redwood camps of
Humboldt Bay. Yarns originating among the river drivers of
the Ottawa, the St. Croix, and the upper Mississippi are re-
spun to groups of listening loggers on Vancouver Island. But
every lumber district has its own peculiar tales. Some have
their songs also, and nearly all have mysterious stories or
vague rumors of dreadful beasts with which to regale new-
comers and frighten people unfamiliar with the woods.

Much has been written concerning the lumber jack and his
life ; some of his songs, rough but full of the sentiment of his
exciting vocation, have been commemorated, but, so far as I
know, very few of the strange creatures of his imagination
have ever been described by the naturalist or sketched by the
artist.

The lumber regions are contracting. Stretches of forest
that once seemed boundless are all but gone, and many a
stream is quiet that once ran full of logs and echoed to the
song of the river driver. Some say that the old type of logger
himself is becoming extinct. It is my purpose in this little
book to preserve at least a description and sketch of some of
the interesting animals which he has originated.

Wm. T. Cox.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the artist, Mr. Coert
Du Bois, who has so faithfully represented these animals.
He never could have drawn them so true to life had he not
met them on tote road and trail. To Mr. George P). Sudworth,
dendrologist of the Forest Service, also I am indebted for his
kind assistance in classifying the animals. My thanks are due
in no small measure to numerous friends among lumbermen
and foresters throughout the country and in Canada for fur-
nishing important scientific "facts" concerning these creatures
their ranges and habits.

INDEX

Page

Introduction 5

Hugag 9

Gumberoo ii

Roperite 13

Snoligoster 15

Leprocaun 17

Funeral Mountain Terrashot 19

Slide-rock Bolter 21

Tote-road Shagamaw 23

Wapaloosie 25

Cactus Cat 27

Hodag 29

Squonk 31

Whirling Whimpus Z2>

Agropelter 35

Splinter Cat 37

Snow Wasset 39

Central American Whintosser 41

Billdad 43

Tripodero 45

Hyampom Hog Bear 47

THE HUGAG

THE HUGAG.

(Rythmopes inarticulatus.)

The hugag is a huge animal of the Lake States. Its range
includes western Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, and a terri-
tory extending indefinitely northward in the Canadian wilds
toward Hudson Bay. In size the hugag may be compared to
the moose, and in form it somewhat resembles that animal.
Very noticeable, however, are its jointless legs, which compel
the animal to remain on its feet, and its long upper lip, which
prevents it from grazing. If it tried that method of feeding it
would simply tramp its upper lip into the dirt. Its head and
neck are leathery and hairless; its strangely corrugated ears
flop downward ; its four-toed feet, long bushy tail, shaggy coat
and general make-up give the beast an unmistakably prehistoric
appearance. The hugag has a perfect mania for traveling, and
few hunters who have taken up its trail ever came up with the
"beast or back to camp. It is reported to keep going all day
long, browsing on twigs, flopping its lip around trees, and
stripping bark as occasion offers, and at night, since it cannot
lie down, it leans against a tree, bracing its hind legs and mark-
ing time with its front ones. The most successful hugag
hunters have adopted the practice of notching trees so that they
are almost ready to fall, and when the hugag leans up against
one both the tree and the animal come down. In its helpless
condition it is then easil}" dispatched. The last one killed, so
far as known, was on Turtle River, in northern Minnesota,
where a young one, weighing i,8oo pounds, was found stuck
in the mud. It was knocked in the head by Mike Flynn, of
Cass Lake.

Page Nine

THE GUMBEROO.

(Megalogaster repercussus.)

In the foggy region along the Pacific Coast from Grays
Harbor to Humboldt Bay there ranges a kind of creature that
has caused much annoyance in the lumber woods. This is the
gumberoo, which, luckily, is so rare that only once in a great
while is one seen. It is believed to remain in hiding most of
the time in the base of enormous, burned-out cedar trees, from
where it sallies forth occasionally on frightful marauding expe-
ditions. During these periods of activity the beast is always
hungry and devours anything it can find that looks like food.
A whole horse may be eaten at one sitting, distending the gum-
beroo out of all proportions, but failing to appease its hunger
or cause it the slightest discomfort.

The specimens seen are reported to have been coal black, but
that may have been due to their being smirched with the
charred wood. In size the beast corresponds closely to a black
bear, for which it might be mistaken only for the fact that the
gumberoo is almost hairless. To be sure, it has prominent eye-
brows and some long, bristly hairs on its chin, but the body is
smooth, tough, and shiny and bears not even a wrinkle. The
animal is a tireless traveler when looking for food, but is not
swift in its movements or annoyed in the slightest degree by
the presence of enemies. The latter characteristic is easily
accounted for by the fact that no other animal within its range
has ever found a successful method of attacking a gumberoo
or a vulnerable spot in one's anatomy. Whatever strikes the
beast bounds off with the same force. Its elastic hide hurls
back with equal ease the charging elk and the wrathy hornet.
A rock or peavey thrown at the creature bounds back at who-
ever threw it, and a bullet shot against its hide is sure to strike
the hunter between the eyes.

It is believed that the scarcity of gumberoos is due to their
combustible character and the prevalence of forest fires. The
animal burns, like celluloid, with explosive force. Frequently
during and after a forest fire in the heavy cedar near Coos Bay
woodmen have insisted that they heard loud reports quite
unlike the sound of falling trees, and detected the smell of
burning rubber in the air.

Page Eleven

1* « *"^ •^S'l^ ^,'i^rtf^ '■^'■v,"

^^>s-.-<. .^. - ,^- .,>■■. e.\, , • ■.

:a^

THE ROPERITE

THE ROPERITE.

(Rhynchoropus Aagellifonnis.)

In the foothills of the Sierras, where the Digger pine grows,
dwells one of the most peculiarly specialized animals to be
found anywhere on the American continent. No one knows its
life-history, even approximately, and many a discussion has
been based upon the question as to whether the beast is born,
hatched from eggs, or comes into existence spontaneously from
some mountain cavern. The Digger Indians say that roperites
are the spirits of early Spanish ranchers, and blood-curdling
are the tales they tell of hapless creatures pursued by the beast,
snared with its marvelous rope-like beak, and dragged to death
through thorny chaparral. No man or animal can hope to
outrun it. It steps upon road-runners or kicks them out of the
way, and no obstacle appears sufficient to stop its progress or
even slacken its speed, as it seemingly half flies, half bounds
across the rugged country which it inhabits. Its leathery skin
is impervious to thorn and its flipper-legs uninjured by the
sharpest rocks. According to A. B. Patterson, of Hot Springs,
California, who saw the last roper ite authentically reported,
the animal has a large set of rattles on its tail, which it vibrates
when in pursuit of game, thus producing a whirring sound like
that of a giant rattler. The effect of this upon an animal closely
pursued may be imagined. Lumbermen operating in the region
between Pitt River and the southern end of the Sierras are
urgently requested to make every effort to secure a living
specimen of the roperite.

Page Thirteen

THE SNOLIGOSTER.

(Dorsohastatus caudirotula,)

In the cypress swamps of the South, and particularly in the
region about Lake Okechobee, Florida, woodmen tell of a
strange and dangerous animal known as the snoligoster. This
creature is of enormous proportions and is credited with a
voracious appetite. Worst of all, its appetite is only appeased
by the eating of human beings. In form the snoligoster re-
sembles a huge crocodile, but it is covered with long, glossy fur
and has no legs or fins, except one long spike on its back. A
person naturally wonders how such an animal can manage to
travel through the water and mud of the swamp region where
it lives, but nature has provided it with a means for driving
itself along. On the end of its tail are three bony plates much
resembling the propeller on a steamboat. These revolve at a
terrific rate, driving the animal like a torpedo boat through
the mud. They servjC other purposes as well, for when a
snoligoster catches an unfortunate pickaninny, or even a full-
grown negro, upon which it delights to feed, it tosses the victim
up and backward so as to impale him upon the spike fin, where
several may be carried until sufficient for a meal have been
collected. The snoligoster's tail is then driven into the mud
and revolved until a hole is scooped out and the victims scraped
oflF the spike and tossed in, whereupon the snoligoster beats
them into a batter with its rapidly revolving propeller and
inhales them.

Air. Inman F. Eldredge, of De Funiak Springs, Florida,
while hunting for an outlaw negro in the swamps, had a most
unusual experience. He caught sight of the negro, dead and
impaled upon what at first appeared to be a slender cypress
knee, but which presently began to move away. It was then
seen to be the spike on a snoligcster's back. Eldredge's first
impulse was to shoot the strange beast, but upon second
thought he concluded that it was doing a good work and was
entitled to live on. The very report of such a creature inhabit-
ing the swamps would deter evil-doers from venturing into
these wild places to avoid their pursuers and escape justice.

Page Fifteen

THE LEPROCAUN.

(Simiidiabolus hibernicus horribilis.)

During the early days of Upper Canada, before it became
the Province of Ontario, there were brought into a logging
camp on the Madawaska River several young leprocauns from
the north of Ireland. This animal was even then rare and has
since become extinct in its native land. It is said that during
the last famine hungry Irishmen killed and ate the few remain-
ing specimens of this queer beast.

On its native bogs the leprocaun was a harmless creature,
celebrated for its playfulness and laughable antics. It would
hop across the bogs, turn somersaults, and leap over hillocks
with wondrous agility. A favorite trick was to bore into a pile
of drying peat and then, with a sudden spring, send the clods
of peat high in the air till the commotion looked like a young
cyclone. These antics were all right enough in Ireland, but
when the animal was brought to Canada its disposition changed
at once. The pets on the Madawaska escaped into nearby
tamarack swamps, increasing and spreading until an occasional
one was seen on the upper Ottawa and even over in northern
Michigan. Sneaking through the tamarack and cedar, or leap-
ing across the muskegs after whatever appealed to it as food,
the leprocaun became a creature to be feared and avoided.
Teamsters toting supplies across swamp roads have been at-
tacked by the animal, which would bound clear over the load,
snapping its teeth at the driver and reaching for him with its
villainous claws. Hasty flight to thick timber, leaving the team
to its fate, was the only choice of the driver, who thanked his
stars that in running through tangled tamarack even the lepro-
caun is no match for a frightened man.

Page Seventeen

THE FUNERAL MOUNTAIN TERRASHOT.

(Funericorpus displosissimum.)

This animal explains the origin of the name of the Funeral
Range, California. The creature has a casket-like body, six to
eight feet long, with a shell running the whole length of its
back. Its four legs are long and wobbly, causing the terrashot
to sway uncertainly from side to side and forward and back-
ward as it travels along.

The strange beast was first reported by some Mormon emi-
grants, who observed a peculiar procession entering the desert
from a certain mountain range, afterward named the Funeral
Mountains. They also witnessed the tragic fate of the crea-
tures. One of the Mormons, aroused by his curiosity, made an
investigation which resulted in finding out about all that is
known of the terrashot. It seems that the animal lives in the
little meadows and parks in the higher portions of the range,
where it gradually increases in numbers, until by a strange
impulse it is seized by a desire to emigrate. They then form
long processions and march down into the desert, with the evi-
dent intention of crossing to other ranges that can be seen in
the distance, but none of them ever gets across. As they en-
counter the hot sands they rapidly distend with the heat, and
one after another they blow up with resounding reports, leaving
deep, grave-shaped holes in the sand.

J'age Nineteen

THE SLIDE-ROCK BOLTER.

(Macrostoma saxiperrumptus.)

In the mountains of Colorado, where in summer the woods
are becoming infested with tourists, much uneasiness has been
caused by the presence of the sHde-rock bolter. This frightful
animal lives only in the steepest mountain country where the
slopes are greater than 45 degrees. It has an immense head,
with small eyes, and a mouth somewhat on the order of a
sculpin, running back beyond its ears. The tail consists of a
divided flipper, with enormous grab-hooks, which it fastens
over the crest of the mountain or ridge, often remaining there
motionless for days at a time, watching the gulch for tourists
or any other hapless creature that may enter it. At the right
moment, after sighting a tourist, it will lift its tail, thus loosen-
ing its hold on the mountain, and with its small eyes riveted
on the poor unfortunate, and drooling thin skid grease from
the corners of its mouth, which greatly accelerates its speed,
the bolter comes down like a toboggan, scooping in its victim
as it goes, its own impetus carrying it up the next slope, where
it again slaps its tail over the ridge and waits. Whole parties
of tourists are reported to have been gulped at one swoop by
the slide-rock bolter, and guides are becoming cautious about
taking parties far back into the hills. The animal is a menace
not only to tourists but to the woods as well. Many a draw
through spruce-covered slopes has been laid low, the trees
being knocked out by the roots or mowed off as by a scythe
where the bolter has crashed down through from the peaks
above.

A forest ranger, whose district includes the rough country
between Ophir Peaks and the Lizzard Head, conceived the
bold idea of decoying a slide-rock bolter to its own destruction.
A dummy tourist was rigged up with plaid Norfolk jacket,
knee breeches, and a guide book to Colorado. It was then
filled full of giant powder and fulminate caps and posted in a
conspicuous place, where, sure enough, the next day it attracted
the attention of a bolter which had been hanging for days on
the slope of Lizzard Head. The resulting explosion flattened
half the buildings in Rico, which were never rebuilt, and the
surrounding hills fattened flocks of buzzards the rest of the
summer.

Page Twenty-one

THE TOTE-ROAD SHAGAMAW.

(Bipedester delusissimus.)

From the Rangeley Lakes to the Allegash and across in New
Brunswick loggers tell of an animal which has puzzled many a
man, even those who were not strangers in the woods. Fre-
quently the report is circulated that the tracks of a bear have
been seen near camp, but a little later this is denied and moose
tracks are reported instead. Heated arguments among the
men, soinetimes resulting in fist lights, are likely to follow. It
is rightly considered an insult to a woodsman to accuse him
of not being able to distinguish the track of either of these
animals. To only a few of the old timber cruisers and river-
men is the explanation of these changing tracks known. Gus
Demo, of Oldtown, Maine, who has hunted and trapped and
logged in the Maine woods for 40 years, once came upon what
he recognized as the tracks of a moose. After following it for
about 80 rods it changed abruptl}^ into unmistakable bear
tracks ; another 80 rods and it changed to moose tracks again.
It was soon observed by Mr. Demo that these changes took
place precisely every quarter of a mile, and, furthermore, that
whatever was making the tracks always followed a tote road or
a blazed line through the woods. Coming up within sight of
the animal, Gus saw that it had front feet like a bear's and
hind feet like those of a moose, and. that it was pacing care-
fully, taking exactly a yard at a step. Suddenly it stopped,
looked all about, and swung as on a pivot, then inverting itself
and walking on its front feet only, it resumed its pacing. Mr.
Demo was only an instant in recognizing by the witness trees
that the place where the animal changed was a section corner.
From this fact he reasoned that the shagamaw must have been
originally a very imitative animal, which, from watching sur-
veyors, timber cruisers, and trappers patiently following lines
through the woods, contracted the habit itself. He figures that
the shagamaw can count only as hieh as 440; therefore it must
invert itself every quarter of a mile.

Page Twenty-three

THE WAPALOOSIE

THE WAPALOOSIE.

{jGeometrigradus cilioretr actus.)

In the damp forests of the Pacific coast and eastward as far
as the St. Joe River, in north Idaho, ranges a quaint little
beast, known among loggers as the wapaloosie. It is about the
size of a sausage dog, but is not even distantly related to the
canine family. The wapaloosie, according to lumber jacks,
lives upon shelf fungus or conchs exclusively, and he is able to
♦ get them with ease, no matter if they are growing on the tip top
of a hundred- foot dead tree. It is a pleasure for one of these
animals to climb, for he has feet and toes like those of a wood-
pecker, and he humps himself along like a measuring worm.
Even his tail is spiked at the tip and aids him as he mounts the
lofty firs in quest of food.

One of the most peculiar features of the animal was dis-
covered only recently. A lumber jack in one of the camps on
the Humptulips River, Washington, shot a wapaloosie, and
upon examining its velvety coat decided that it would make an
attractive and serviceable pair of mittens, which he proceeded
to make. The hide was tanned thoroughly and the mittens
made with care, fur side out, and as the lumber jack went to
work he exhibited them with pride. Imagine his surprise upon
taking hold of an ax to find that the mittens immediately
worked their way up and oflf the handle. It was the same with
whatever he took hold of, and, finding that he could not use the
mittens, they were left in a skid road, and were last seen work-
ing their way over logs and litter across the slashing.

Page Twenty-live

THE CACTUS CAT.

(Cactifelinus inebrius.)

How many people have heard of the cactus cat ? Thousands
of people spend their winters in the great Southwest — ^the land
of desert and mountain, of fruitful valleys, of flat-topped
mesas, of Pueblos, Navajos, and Apaches, of sunshine, and the
ruins of ancient Cliff-dwellers. It is doubtful, however, if one
in a hundred of these people ever heard of a cactus cat, to say
nothing of seeing one sporting about among the cholla and palo
verde. Only the old-timers know of the beast and its queer
habits.

The cactus cat, as its name signifies, lives in the great cactus
districts, and is particularly abundant between Prescott and
Tucson. It has been reported, also, from the valley of the
lower Yaqui, in Old Mexico, and the cholla-covered hills of
Yucatan. The cactus cat has thorny hair, the thorns being
especially long and rigid on its ears. Its tail is branched, and
upon the forearms above its front feet are sharp, knifelike
blades of bone. With these blades it slashes the base of giant
cactus trees, causing the sap to exude. This is done system-
atically, many trees being slashed in the course of several
nights as the cat makes a big circuit. By the time it is back to
the place of beginning the sap of the first cactus has fermented
into a kind of mescal, sweet and very intoxicating. This is
greedily lapped up by the thirsty beast, which soon becomes
fiddling drunk, and goes waltzing off in the moonlight, rasping
its bony forearms across each other and screaming with delight.

Page Ttventy-Seven

THE HODAG.

(Nosobaiilus hystrivoratus.)

This animal has been variously described by woodsmen from
Wisconsin and Minnesota. Opinions differ greatly as to the
appearance of the beast, some claiming it to be covered with
horns and spines and having a maniacal disposition. The de-
scription which seems most authentic and from which the
sketch of the animal has been made is as follows : Size, about
that of a rhinoceros and somewhat resembling that animal in
general makeup. The creature is slow in motion, deliberate,
and, unlike the rhinoceros, very intelligent. Its hairless body
is mottled, striped, and checked in a striking manner, sug-
gestive of the origin of the patterns upon Mackinaw clothing,
now used in the lumber woods. On the hodag's nose, instead
of a horn there is a large spade-shaped bony growth, with
peculiar phalanges, extending up in front of the eye, so that he
can see only straight up. This probably accounts for the de-
liberate disposition of the animal, which wanders through the
spruce woods looking for suitable food. About the only living
creature which the hodag can catch is the porcupine ; indeed, it
would appear that the porcupine is its natural food. Upon
sighting one rolled up in the branches of a spruce the hodag
begins to blink his eyes, lick his chops, and spade around the
tree, cutting all the roots until the tree begins to totter. He
then backs off, and with a rush rams his shovel nose under the
roots and over goes the tree, knocking the breath out of the
porcupine in its fall. The hodag then straddles the fallen tree,
follows it out to the top, where the huge pointed hoofs of its
front feet crush the helpless porcupine, and then deliberately
swallow-s him head first.

In the autumn the hodag strips the bark off a number of
spruce or pine trees and covers himself all over with pitch.
He then searches out a patch of hardwood timber where dead
leaves lie thick on the ground. Here he rolls about until com-
pletely encased in a thick, warm mantle of leaves, in which
condition he spends the winter.

Page Tivcnty-nine

THE SQUONK

THE SQUONK.

(Lacrimacorpus dissolvens.)

The range of the squonk is very limited. Few people outside
of Pennsylvania have ever heard of the quaint beast, which is
said to be fairly common in the hemlock forests of that State.
The squonk is of a very retiring disposition, generally traveling
about at twilight and dusk. Because of its misfitting . skin,
which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy;
in fact it is said, by people who are best able to judge, to be the
most morbid of beasts. Hunters who are good at tracking are
able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal
weeps constantly. When cornered and escape seems impossible,
or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself
in tears. Squonk hunters are most successful on frosty moon-
light nights, when tears are shed slowly and the animal dislikes
moving about ; it may then be heard weeping under the boughs
of dark hemlock trees. Mr. J. P. Wentling, formerly of Penn-
sylvania, but now at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, had a dis-
appointing experience with a squonk near Mont Alto. He
made a clever capture by mimicking the squonk and inducing
it to hop into a sack, in which he was carrying it home, when
suddenly the burden lightened and the weeping ceased. Went-
ling unslung the sack and looked in. There was nothing but
tears and bubbles.

Page Thirty-one

THE WHIRLING WHIMPUS.

(Turbinoccissus nebuloides.)

Occasionally it happens that inexperienced hunters and
others wandering in the woods disappear completely. Guides
are unable to locate them, and all kinds of theories are offered
to explain the disappearances.

From the hardwood forests of the Cumberland Mountains,
Tennessee, comes the rumor of an animal called the whirling
whimpus, the existence of which may throw some light upon
the fate of those who fail to come back to camp. According to
woodsmen who have been ^'looking'' timber in eastern Tennes-
see, the whimpus is a blood-thirsty creature of no mean propor-
tions. It has a gorilla-shaped head and body and enormous
front feet. Its unique method of obtaining food is to station
itself upon a trail, generally at a bend in the trail, where it
stands on its diminutive hind legs and whirls. The speed is
increased until the animal is invisible, and the motion produces
a strange droning sound, seeming to come from the trees over-
head. Any creature coming along the trail and not recognizing
the sound is almost certain to walk into the danger zone and
become instantly deposited in the form of syrup or varnish
upon the huge paws of tne whimpus.

Page Thirty-three

THE ACROPELTER

THE AGROPELTER,

(Anthrocephalus craniofractens.)

Leading a vengeful existence, resenting the intrusion of the
logger, the agropelter deals misery to the lumber jack from
Maine to Oregon. Ill fares the man who attempts to pass a
hollow tree in which one of these creatures has taken up its
temporary abode. The unfortunate is usually found smashed
or pinned by a dead branch and reported as having been killed
by a falling limb. So unerring is the aim of the agropelter
that despite diligent search I have been unable to locate more
than one man who has been the target for one of their missiles
and yet survived to describe the beast. This is Big Ole Kittle-
son, who, upon a certain occasion, when cruising timber on the
upper St. Croix, was knocked down by a partly rotten limb
thrown by an agropelter. This limb was so punky that it shat-
tered on Ole's head, and he had time to observe the rascally
beast before it bounded from the tree and whisked itself off
through the woods.

According to Ole, the animal has a slender, wiry body, the
villainous face of an ape, and arms like muscular whiplashes,
with which it can snap off dead branches and hurl them through
the air like shells from a six-inch gun. It is supposed to feed
upon hoot owls and woodpeckers, the scarcity of which will
always prevent the agropelter from becoming numerous in any
locality.

Page Thirty-Uve

THE SPUNTER CAT

THE SPLINTER CAT.

(Felynx arbor diMsus.)

A widely distributed and frightfully destructive animal is the
splinter cat. It is found from the Great Lakes to the Gulf,
and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, but in the Rocky Moun-
tains has been reported from only a few localities. Apparently
the splinter cat inhabits that part of the country in which wild
bees and raccoons abound. These are its natural food, and the
animal puts in every dark and stormy night shattering trees in
search of coons or honey. It doesn't use any judgment in
selecting coon trees or bee trees, but just smashes one tree
after another until a hollow one containing food is found. The
method used by this animal in its destructive work is simple
but effective. It cHmbs one tree, and from the uppermost
branches bounds down and across toward the tree it wishes to
destroy. Striking squarely with its hard face, the splinter cat
passes right on, leaving the tree broken and shattered as
though struck by lightning or snapped off by the wind. Ap-
palling destruction has been wrought by this animal in the Gulf
States, where its work in the shape of a wrecked forest is often
ascribed to windstorms.

Page Thirty-Seven

THE SNOW WASSET.

(Mustelinopsis subitivorax.)

On the most northern logging camps of Canada we hear of
the snow wasset. This is surely an animal of the Boreal Zone.
It is a migratory animal, wintering in the lumbering region
between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay and spending its
summers far north in Labrador and the Barren Grounds.
Unlike most wild creatures of the North, the wasset is said to
hibernate during only the warmest weather, when its hair
turns green and it curls up in a cranberry marsh. During the
summer it has rudimentary legs, which enable it to creep slowly
arounc^ and remain in the shade.

After the first howling snowstorm the wasset sheds its legs
and starts south, dipping about in the snow. It soon attains
remarkable skill in this method af travel, which enables it to
surprise burrowing grouse, crouching rabbits, and skulking
varmints of many kinds. Later in the winter, when food be-
comes scarce and more difficult to obtain, even wolves are
seized from below and dragged howling and kicking into the
snowdrifts. According to woodsmen, the tragedies of the far
North are more numerous beneath the crusted snow than above
it. There is no telling how many creatures are pulled down
and eaten by the wasset, for this animal has a voracious appe-
tite, comparable only to that of the wolverine, but since it is
four times as big and forty times as active as the wolverine it
must eat correspondingly more.

The only specimen of this beast ever examined by white men
was an imperfect one on James Bay, where a party of sur-
veyors found an Indian in a peculiar canoe, which, upon exami-
nation, was shown to be made from one wasset hide greatly
stretched. There being no leg holes in the white winter pelt,
it is peculiarly adapted to the making of shapely one-man
canoes, which are said to be used also as sleds by the Indians.
A whole battery of dead-falls are believed to be used in trap-
ping a wasset, since it is impossible to tell in what direction the
animal's body may extend. The trigger is set so that a dozen
logs fall in from all sides toward the bait, pinning the animal
under the snow wherever he may be.

Page Thirty-nine

THE CENTRAL AMERICAN WHINTOSSER.

(Cephalovertens semperambulatus.)

In the spring of igo6 there appeared suddenly in the Coast
Ranges of CaHfornia an uncanny animal from the region of
the Isthmus. It is not a large beast, but what it lacks m size it
makes up in meanness of disposition. None of the lumber
jacks who have met a whintosser on trail or tote road care to
have the experience repeated. The Central American whin-
tosser is always looking for trouble or making it. In fact the
beast seems to be constructed for the purpose of passing
through unusual experiences. Its head is fastened to its body
by a swivel neck ; so is its short, tapering tail ; and both can be
spun around at the rate of a hundred revolutions a minute.
The body is long and triangular, with three complete sets of
legs; this is a great convenience in an earthquake country,
since the animal is not disturbed by any convulsions of the
earth. If the floor suddenly becomes the ceiling it does not
matter, for the whintosser is always there with the legs. Its
hair is bristly, and all slants forward at a sharp angle. It has
been found that a cat's nine lives are as nothing to the one
possessed by a whintosser. This animal may be shot, clubbed,
or strung on a pike pole without stopping the wriggling, whirl-
ing motions or the screams of rage. The only successful way
of killing the beast is to poke it into a flume pipe so that all its
feet strike the surface, when it immediately starts to walk in
three different directions at once and tears itself all apart.

John Gray, of Anadar, Trinity County, California, knows
where a pair of whintossers live in some bro ken-up country
along Mad River.

Page Party- one

THE BELLDAD

THE BILLDAD.

(Saltipiscator f ale or o stratus.)

If you have ever paddled around Boundary Pond, in north-
west Maine, at night you have probably heard from out the
black depths of a cove a spat like a paddle striking the water.
It may have been a paddle, but the chances are ten to one that
it was a billdad fishing. This animal occurs only on this one
pond, in Hurricane Township. It is about the size of a beaver,
but has long, kangaroo-like hind legs, short front legs, webbed
feet, and a heavy, hawk-like bill. Its mode of fishing is to
crouch on a grassy point overlooking the water, and when a
trout rises for a bug, to leap with amazing swiftness just past
the fish, bringing its heavy, flat tail down with a resounding
smack over him. This stuns the fish, which is immediately
picked up and eaten by the billdad. It has been reported that
sixty yards is an average jump for an adult male.

Up to three years ago the opinion was current among lumber
jacks that the billdad was fine eating, but since the beasts are
exceedingly shy and hard to catch no one was able to remember
having tasted the meat. That fall one was killed on Boundary
Pond and brought into the Great Northern Paper Company's
camp on Hurricane Lake, where the cook made a most savory
slumgullion of it. The first (and only) man to taste it was
Bill Murphy, a tote-road swamper from Ambegegis. After the
first mouthful his body stiffened, his eyes glazed, and his hands
clutched the table edge. With a wild yell he rushed out of the
cook-house, down to the lake, and leaped clear out fifty yards,
coming down in a sitting posture — exactly like a billdad catch-
ing a fish. Of course, he sank like a stone. Since then not a
lumber jack in Maine will touch billdad meat, not even with a
pike pole.

Page Forty-three

THE TRiPODERO

THE TRIPODERO.

(Collapsofemuris geocatapeltes.)

The chaparral and foothill forests of California contain many
queer freaks of one kind and another. One of the strangest
and least known is the tripodero, an animal with two contractile
or telescopic legs and a tail like a kangaroo's. This peculiarity
in structure enables the animal to elevate itself at will, so that
it may tower above the chaparral, or, if it chooses, to pull in its
legs and present a compact form for crowding through the
brush. The tripodero's body is not large but is solidly built,
and its head is nearly all snout, the value of which is seen in
the method by which food is obtained. As the animal travels
through the brush-covered country it elongates its legs from
time to time, thus shoving itself up above the brush for pur-
poses of observation. If it sights game within a range of ten
rods it takes aim with its snout and tilts itself until the right
elevation is obtained, then with astounding force blows a sun-
dried quid of clay knocking its victim senseless. (A supply of
these quids is always carried in the left jaw.) The tripodero
then contracts its legs and bores its way through the brush to
its victim, where it stavs until the last bone is cracked and
eaten.

Page Forty-five

THE HYAMPOM HOG BEAR